Anime / 8th Man

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Based the manga series 8 Man by Jiro Kuwata and Kazumasa Hirai, this 1963 anime tells the story of a private investigator named Hachiro Azuma (Brady in the US), ambushed by criminals and run over by a car. As he lies dying, a mysterious scientist rescues him and gives him a new cyborg body.

Now empowered beyond ordinary men, Azuma becomes (all by himself) the secret 8th division of the Tokyo Police. His only superior is bureau chief Tanaka (called Chief Fumblethumbs, of all things, in English). Now called 8-Man ("Eighth Man", in English, because according to the dub he was the eighth cyborg attempt — and the first one to work!), he has the usual array of powers: Super Strength, Super Speed, plus the unusual ability to detach and remotely control his limbs. In a detail that would never get past kid-vid censors today, 8-Man recharged his power supply using "special cigarettes". He spent much of his time fighting an array of goofy enemies ranging from communist spies and robot bats to gangsters with bizarre names right out of Dick Tracy.

Although the animation was average for a TV series of its time (it ran from November 7, 1963 to December 12, 1964 in Japan), by modern standards it is laughable and crude (like most shows of its era). In addition to being in black and white, its production crew had almost no experience with cel animation and took several episodes to gain any skill with the form. Even then it was of low quality, with a minimal frame rate, low detail, and wooden movement.

Despite this, it is still viewed with a certain amount of nostalgia in both Japan and the United States, so much so that there was actually a (reputedly awful) Live-Action Adaptation produced in 1992.

Inconsistent Dub: To name just one example, one episode features an assassin named Ice Finger. Later he appears again as the brain donor for a killer robot, but for some reason his name was changed to Cold Knuckle.

I Surrender, Suckers: How the whole thing started. The leader of the gang that Azuma was going after pretended to surrender so that his other henchmen can run him over with their car while he was distracted, killing him. This lead to the scientist retrieving his body and rebuilding him as 8th Man.

Ruritania: The professor who created 8th Man is said to have defected from a fictional country called Armico, to explain why all his blueprints and written communications are in a weird foreign language (Japanese, of course).

Weaksauce Weakness: Eight Man has to smoke (or eat) what appear to be cigarettes to keep his powers running. Great when he's facing a firing squad, but what if kids see him smoking and he sets a bad example?

Note that the latter issue is only thanks to Values Dissonance with the time period the character was originally created in. 60s Japan was a time when people still believed cigarettes were good for you.

8th-Man After contains examples of:

Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Cyborgs routinely run rampant because the cybernetic link to the nervous system along with the massive boost in strength unhinges most people's minds. Eight Man, being a (Bishōnen) Phlebotinum Rebel with "good cybernetics" is able to escape these effects (mostly) and battle the evil Mega Corp. producing them.

Dragon Ascendant: After sabotaging the football team, Tony Gleck is able to stage a hostile takeover of the Biotechno Mega Corp., and force his former boss Mr. Halloween (Daigo) to be turned into a cyborg suicide bomber.

Drugs Are Bad: Used by the OVA in place of Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: it's not the cybernetics per se that drives the users crazy, but the massive quantities of Psycho Serum they have to take to use the implants effectively. Eight Man makes do with good-old Super Serum. Which turns out to be closer to "I Just Get These Headaches" Serum, because of the overreaction Hazama has to the memory of his (fiancee/sister)'s murder. The metaphor becomes a little on-the-nose when Eight Man has to fight a football team that was augmented, and later help his sidekick's Disappeared Dad, a team member, fight through withdrawal symptoms.

Dub-Induced Plot Hole: In the first episode (or act of the Compilation Movie), Tanaka mentions that Hazama's fiancee was killed. Much later, when Hazama actually flashes back to the incident, several characters mention that his sister was the one killed.

Flash Step: Eight Man's superspeed is portrayed as this trope, with the sparks of his footsteps often the only sign that something struck an opponent.

Killed Off for Real: In 8th Man After it's revealed that Azuma was deleted from his cyborg body with no explanation as to how or why he was deleted, the only remaining trace being his name, and his successor Hazama inheriting the body. However, combining statements from Sachiko and Professor Tani suggests that Azuma eventually wasn't able to cope with his situation and died. Since Tani had the body to begin with, it's possible that he ended up euthanizing Azuma.

Nonstandard Character Design: Tanaka from the original series (and his rookie cop nephew Ichiro) have noticeably more cartoony designs than the other characters.

Put on a Bus: Azuma disappears not a minute into the OVA, never to be seen again.

Bus Crash: We later discover that Hazama isn't a totally new Eight Man, but inhabits the original body. Azuma's mind had been deleted by persons and methods unknown.

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